The Fremont Street Experience

Pictured
above is an artist's rendering of the new Fremont Street Experience due for
completion in the winter of 1995. Click on the thumbprint to the right to
see what the project (as of 9/20/95) looked like in real life from
approximately the same angle.(69K)

**

Lumbering across the downtown skyline like a silvery caterpillar 5
stories up, the lighted canopy will be a new attraction to the downtown
Las Vegas area.

This incredible $70 million project will
include a light and sound show of unparalleled stature, utilizing an
impressive 2.1 million lights and 40,000 watts of sound from speakers
like those pictured here. It will be about 1500 feet long and nearly
100 feet high

Photogenic Fremont Street, located in the heart of downtown Las Vegas,
will be transformed into a "people place" offering a unique blend of festival
entertainment, patio cafes and shopping in addition to the variety of
activities offered in the many famous casino resorts included within the
Experience.

Views into both ends of the Fremont Experience

(Look East from the Plaza Hotel, 90K)(Look West Toward the Plaza Hotel, 52K)
The Eastward view shows the first portion of the project to be completed
where the block dedication and ribbon cutting ceremony was scheduled to be
held Sept. 22. However the ceremony was cancelled due to unusually high
humidity over the previous weeks which caused the concrete on the ground to
be not quite cured enough for heavy traffic.

The
project was intentionally completed in stages starting from the
West end toward the East. The canopy on the East end was finished,
while the floor was still dirt. If you click on the thumb print(55K)
you'll see the final remaining 100 ft without lights attached (the portion
of the picture to the left of the support post has lights while that to
right does not). All the lights are now installed and a number of shops
have started moving in.

The mall-like floor is now finished.
Here, a workman prepares water and electrical utilites, before the
concrete was poured, for the many trees which will be in the "mall" area.

At the East end of Fremont street a
Parking Plaza is being constructed to accomodate 1500 vehicles to handle
the new parking requirements. The "Parking Plaza" area was completed at the
end of October encompassing Fremont Street between Fourth Street and Las
Vegas Blvd and is now open for parking. Fourth Street will remain open to
traffic after completion. The lower level of the parking structure will
eventually also house small shops and vendors.

Ankle-deep in concrete, workers prepare the final section surface

The last Section of concrete for the Parking Plaza is poured
October 25, 1995 as numerous onlookers generously provide free
guidance and advice.

Painters on the parking structure pursue the immense task of painting all
that steel and concrete... red.

Testing of the light shows and sound systems has been proceeding pretty
much every night during the beginning of December including some special
performances related to the National Finals Rodeo. The unofficial schedule is
a 5-10 minute show every hour on the hour from 6:00pm until 11:00pm each night.
If you catch one show, you might want to stick around for the next as there
are a number of entirely different shows depending upon the season and
special events going on in town.

To describe it, if you're standing at one end of the 4 block structure
looking toward the other end, think of it as a VERY long, about half-res,
television, screen displaying video games. In nearly all of the show segments
the same images are repeated, side by side about 10 times over the 4 block
length so that everyone is able to see a similar picture. The sound is of a
quite tolerable level and uniform throughout the structure, but barely audible
more than half a block away. We WILL be adding a page of photos depicting the
shows now that we have obtained permisssion, as soon as we can get to
processing the pictures.

There have already been a series of special events held at the new
attraction including a worldwide travel agent familiarization tour of about
1500 agents on December 10th. The actual VIP Invitational Grand Opening
with lights and sound is officially scheduled for December 13! There will be
a pre-grand opening Chamber of Commerce Mixer the evening before
(December 12) beginning somewhere between 5:00pm and 7:00pm.

If you are planning on attending the New Year's Eve festivities at the
Fremont Experience this year, complete with a planned special canopy-displayed
midnight count-down, be aware that, as of the writing of this page, there are
plans to charge a $10 per person cover charge for entry to the Fremont Experience
for that evening.

But this isn't just a FUTURE destination. Right now, today, there are
great bargains to be had in accomodations and dining at all of the downtown
area hotels while construction is proceeding. Check with the following downtown
hotels for their current offerings:

For more information on this exciting new development contact: THE FREMONT
EXPERIENCE at (702) 678-5600, 425 Fremont St., Las Vegas, NV 89101

If your Las Vegas hotel, casino, restaurant or establishment has new
major construction, public activities (sorry, slot tournaments and bingo night
don't count) or other interesting tidbits to offer, send them to us on company
letterhead and if we think LVLG readers will be amazed, astounded, or even
slightly interested we'll publish it. Make sure to send LOTS of pictures!
We love pictures!